This is the story of Roscoe and Spur. Roscoe was doomed to death for biting. I took in the little bastard!
Spur came from the 2007 biggest puppy mill bust the state of Maine has ever seen. He's nice, too!
This blog is about the life of two little dogs and me, Amy Carlson! A silly self-indulgent blog that might bring a smile to your face. :D

Monday, October 29, 2012

Darn, no double Q because he went around that jump. I must remember to manage every SINGLE obstacle, LOL!!

Miss Colby's ultrasound Friday showed nothing. I figured that would happen. So, we are trying a round of antibiotics in case she has a developing kidney infection. Specialist said we should notice a difference after the weekend. Huh, no different. We also ran a urine to check for possibly cushings disease. Waiting for the results of that today. It is sure a conundrum. I DO think she is drinking more. I feel bad for her. I feel bad for us. It is very tiring.

Friday, October 26, 2012

We ran the blood tests and oddly she has a very high BUN. That is one of the kidney values. Curious thing, though, because everything else including the other kidney value AND her urine specific gravity are normal. Which means, I guess, not kidney disease. One thing would be dehydration. Hmmm, I think she is actually drinking more than normal lately. Or some sort of intestinal thing and the vet asked if I noticed dark, tarry stools or blood in her stools. Nope, normal stools. It isn't making much sense, so we are off today for an abdominal ultrasound. Hopefully, some answers.
She is STILL shaking and whining and pawing at us for attention. She wants in our laps constantly and it is extremely annoying. She barely settles or sleeps. This from a dog who was sleeping most of the day and certainly all night. She's 13 years old, old dogs sleep a lot. Now we barely make it 4-5 hours with her taking some xanax at night. :(
My vet also questioned her progressive retinal atrophy diagnosis as she could find no record of that in her files. This is a new vet who bought out my previous vet. I called the eye doctor we say in 09 and sure enough no diagnosis of PRA. She was diagnosed with iris atrophy. NOT something that causes them to go blind, just an old age symptom that can affect their eye sight. I found my handouts from my visit and sure enough I was given the PRA handout. ????? Rich and I both agree she is going blind and it has progressed a lot the last couple of months. So, my vet now says perhaps another visit with the eye doctor as maybe something else is going on. She bumps into things now if we leave something around the house where it wasn't before, like the vacuum, and she has trouble finding my hand with a treat in it when we are out on our walks. I asked our friends who walk with us and they all agree they notice her seeing less and less. It is all very odd.
Is this shaking and whining behavior, senility, or is she sick? Why the high BUN number? I need some answers along with some sleep!

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

The vet wasn't sure about her back. It seemed like maybe she is sore on her back where ribs meet abdomen, but it is really hard to know. Our gut feeling is that she might be a LITTLE back sore, but most of this is behavioral. Senility? Worry because of her loss of sight? Combination of the two, three things? We gave her Xanax last night so we could sleep. That worked until 3:00, but then she paced and shook, so I tried sleeping on the couch with her.........again. We slept....some. I think the Xanax worked some, but it didn't last.

This morning, the pacing and whining and shaking again. I decided to try the Xanax. Didn't work at all, that I could tell. I gave just a bit less, so maybe she needs more? She seems happy and active and not really very back sore on our walk this morning. In fact, running around quite nicely. It is just so hard to know. I wish they could talk. We will hear about the blood tests later today.

I love the fall morning light and this little sparrow was on top of a big mound of dirt. Looking like "King of The Mountain!"

The cows are enjoying the back pasture again.

Big Daddy is back.

Damn, he is big!!! Although his head seems small compared to his body??

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Poor Colby. Poor us. Little Miss Colby is having a melt down and we think it is because she is losing what little remained of her eyesight. She has cataracts and retinal atrophy and manages to get around OK, but more and more we see her struggling with seeing much at all. We are lucky our walks are on mowed paths so she stays on the path and can manage pretty well. But, around the house she gets nervous. Nervous about what I am not so sure. The other dogs running into her? The remote left on the couch and she lands on it when she gets up there?

She is whiney and needy and paces and shakes a lot these days. And sleeping? Well, none of us are sleeping much. She sleeps about 3 hours, then wakes up and gets nervous. Shakes and paces and has had some accidents on the rug. It is the rug we bought cheap from Home Depot and it has a mat with a membrane, so it is a rug we expected some accidents, but this is starting to happen every night. So, we started putting her in an x-pen. That worked for about 4 nights, then she got upset. Scratching, whining, and none of us sleep through that. The last two nights one of us has slept on the couch with her. That's not much fun.

So, today I call the vet. I think she needs some medical help. Some anti-anxiety medication to help settle her down. Heck, if I lost nearly all my sight I think I might need some help. Sucks.......

Thursday, October 18, 2012

P-U!!!!
This little buggar was getting into our fully fenced yard, that also
has electric wire all along the top, but it was squeezing in tiny little
gaps that even Roscoe wouldn't try. We thought we had all those gaps
tightened up, so now we think perhaps he/she is climbing the hydrangea
plant and getting over? The one area we don't have electric fence along
the top because it was burning the plant and we love that plant. After the offending event it hid in the window well. Rich
tried to get it out this morning by hosing it, but nope the little
buggar decided to just take just a nap. So, he left it a ramp.
Recharging, I suppose!!! Awesome.

I guess
I will be cutting back that hydrangea and continuing the electric wire
on that section. I don't know where else it is getting in. And, WHY???
We have a huge property with a lot of lawn for it to get grubs, OUTSIDE
our fenced area!!!! I have a lot of candles going in the house right
now, but the spray probably got on our grass and I was going to mow
today. That is just going to disperse it even more!! OI!!! That is if it actually does decide to leave today and I CAN get out there to mow. The dogs are having to potty out front this morning. Damn it!

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

It is my FAVORITE time of year and it has been so wet and rainy, but Saturday was awesome!!! We left the dogs at home, testing out a "house/pet sitter". Hard to find someone who can handle Roscoe and the horses and in general someone I can trust. Unfortunately, this didn't work out that well. She arrived late for our meeting and then was late feeding the dogs on Saturday. I know because I had a friend arrive to check in on things after our worry about her being late for our meeting. Darn. She is good with Roscoe, but other than that it isn't enough reason to give it another go. On goes our search for a house/pet sitter for when we both want to go away. :(

Anyway, the animals survived one night, so no harm done. Just disappointing.

The Pin Heads could not have done this hike anyway. Too strenuous. Spur would have LOVED it. My legs did well, but I was surprised how the down hill made my thighs sore. I think of myself in such good shape, then I do this kind of a hike and it humbles me. Brings me back to earth, realizing my age. Damn it!!!

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

I get a little defensive about that, but maybe he is right? I can't get enough of this stuff!!! How does one get really good at a sport without being "obsessed"? I DO like to do other things, garden, read, eat..........yeah, I like to eat. Anyway, join my obsession and enjoy this overlay. Love these analytical videos!!! Bu is not the fastest dog on the flat, but she sure can turn tight. Twizz is fast, so cranking down and turning tight slow that dog and going the longer path worked best for Twizz. Each dog is different and I think on this run you can see that a running dogwalk meant the faster time.

Tuesday, October 9, 2012

I don't think I ever posted this run. He was really happy here and it helps me to go back and see how happy he was and how far we have come. We sure have our ups and downs, but if I can get this attitude out of him more and more I will be very happy.

Monday, October 8, 2012

And a little intimidating? This weekend was the big agility "Super Bowl". World Team! In the Czech Republic. 28 countries competed! Teams of four dogs for each height. Three heights = small, medium, and large. I watched the live feed on occasion through out the weekend. It was very exciting!! This is seriously crazy good agility. The best you will ever see. Just to give you a little idea, here is a video of my idol, Silvia Trkman and her young dog winning the medium agility. Crazy fast!!

How does she run, yell, watch her dog and remember her course??? Insane!!!

Thursday, October 4, 2012

This is the video of parts of the trial last weekend. Some good parts and some bummer parts. Me crashing into the jump and knocking the whole thing over just after he did his scary teeter sure hurt us. We have not had a really good class performance in a while. I just can't seem to get him into the game at class. Try as I might, we just are in a toilet flush. :P
I need to regroup and make a plan. I already dropped out of Tuesday's class. There is only one more left anyway. Wednesday's class is my all time favorite. Wonderfully supportive group and GREAT fun, but he isn't all that happy there, either. He used to LOVE it there and worked great, but now............it's really kind of a bummer. Usually I can see some good parts in my video from class, but last night I just deleted it all. He does his job, has good skills, but he isn't into it like I would really like. So, I don't want to practice this down performance. I need to change something. I may try bringing Roscoe and running a low jump course without the a-frame, have Spur watch me. Then try Spur on just a couple of jumps, working to get him INTO the game. I was thinking I would not have my friends cheer much, as that has worked some, but isn't working that well any more. Or everyone can cheer if he looks happy and into it? I am really grasping. I hate to stop going to class, but I don't want to practice this type of performance/feeling. I want him to be INTO it! Not just going through the motions because he is a good boy and well trained. I want him to WANT to do it.

Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Our neighbor, Mary and her dog Pepper, had just been through on their walk. The dogs can smell Pepper and it always puts Spur's tail up on alert. His furry flag, waving his disapproval of Pepper's trespass!

He sure has fancy pants, doesn't he??!! :D

Look at that attitude! Standing as tall as his short neck will go. He doesn't have much of a neck.

I LOVE this shot and might even have to blow this one up! It is so clear and the back ground so perfect. The light was just at it's best yesterday! He sure is a handsome dog!

SO serious! So handsome!

And then we have Rotten Roscoe! Hahahahaha, I love when I capture those ears in "motion". I actually think had Colby's ears not been cropped they would stand up like that all the time. She has much thicker "leather". Roscoe is SO fine, his fur is thin, his ear leather thin, so they flop over except for running around when they flop up and down!! LOL!! SO cute!

I love the silhouette shots!! The glow of the fall light. I don't know why, but I do.

The light glows a nice beard on Georgie!

And when he was in the dried corn I thought the light was perfect. But, I failed to get just the right shot. He is so camouflaged in the dead corn! But, the light is awesome and I am going to try for another shot. I ended up with all but this one blurry.

Trouble was I was trying so hard to get the right shot of George in the corn I stopped paying attention to what MY dogs were doing. Last I had checked they were hunting grasshoppers or rodents. No harm there. But............NOOOOOOOO...........this is what The Spur-minator was up to..........

There was a full bath in his near future yesterday!!! Damn it! I had other things planned upon my return home!!

And a few of Roscoe.

Never did get a shot of Colby yesterday. I suppose I didn't try because
in this low, bright light she squints SO much she looks to have no eyes.
She only has one, but can barely see out of that one when the light
hits her. Poor thing, it must just suck to go blind. I am sad for her.

Roscoe and his world around him!

Amy's Animal Care!! Check out my new WEBSITE!!!!!

Roscoe

Colby

Spur

About Me

I am a full time pet sitter/dog walker. My past life I was a veterinary technician. I keep my license current in the state of Maine. This blog is about Roscoe, Colby and Spur, and my crazy life surrounded by animals.